Experience amazing outdoor recreational activities during winter in Sweetwater County, Wyoming including snow sports, snowmobiling, ice fishing and much more.
Ice Fishing
Ice fishing on the Flaming Gorge can be very good for burbot and rainbows, beginning in mid-December. Anglers also target lake trout through the ice. Smaller lake trout range freely and are often caught by anglers fishing for rainbows.
In general, smaller fish are caught on the north end of the reservoir and the fish become larger as the ice progresses southward. The Firehole on the Green River arm, Halfway Hollow on the Black's Fork arm, and the Confluence area are all popular with ice fishermen after lake trout. Fish 18-21 inches long are commonly caught.
Burbot were illegally introduced into the Green River drainage in Wyoming. These fish have made their way into the Gorge. Burbot compete with other fish, so it's unfortunate that they're in the reservoir, but they also provide great ice fishing. Burbot look somewhat like a cod, and they get active under the ice during the winter.
Most of the burbot in Flaming Gorge are in the upper end of the reservoir, in both the Blacks Fork and Green River arms. The best areas to start fishing are near the Firehole boat ramp, the Lost Dog area, any rocky points in the Blacks Fork River arm, and points in the Confluence area.
Each winter a “Burbot Bash” is held on the Flaming Gorge in January. The Burbot Bash features hands on presentations of angling techniques, filleting and cooking tips on preparing the fish and a fish fry. It also includes a presentation from the Game and Fish on population studies of the fish in the reservoir. There is no entry fee and prizes are given away.
Flaming Gorge Country
Experience genuine wild country just a few hours from a major metropolitan area. Unspoiled and lacking the crowds of most recreation areas, Flaming Gorge Country is an outdoor wonderland.
Year-round recreational opportunities abound on the 91-mile Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the famed Green River. A wide range of active pursuits will fill your days, or you can just sit back and take in the breathtaking scenery and watch the plentiful wildlife.
A rewarding stop along your tour of the natural wonders of the West, Flaming Gorge Country provides the contrast in scenery for which the West is famous, from the rugged Uinta Mountains to the expansive Wyoming deserts. This spectacular combination provides a roomy habitat for a variety of big-game animals, including moose, Rocky Mountain elk, pronghorn antelope and bighorn sheep.
Rich in Western lore, Flaming Gorge Country was home to mountain men, pioneers, outlaws and Native Americans. Scenic drives are an easy way to experience Flaming Gorge’s beauty. In fact, one of the best ways to see our famous wild horses is to look right out your car window! Most of our other highways are designated state scenic byways. Side trips, like the Sheep Creek Geologic Loop Tour, offer exciting views of bighorn sheep.
More information on Flaming Gorge Scenic Byway
Audio Guided Tour
Take a listen to the introduction and beginning your journey through the Flaming Gorge Country and Flaming Gorge Lake.
Full Audio Tour:
Download and listen to the full tour in your favorite media player. (12mb)
The fun doesn’t end with the warm weather. Winter is a magical time of year here in Flaming Gorge Country. Whether you’re on cross-country skis, snowmobiles, or ice fishing, there are miles of trails to explore. Of course, there is fishing in Flaming Gorge Country. From enormous macs in the lake to big browns, cuts and bows in the river, renowned world-class fishing is found here.
Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area is managed by the USDA Forest Service, Ashley national Forest and USDI Bureau of Reclamation. Recreational opportunities include more than 600 camping and picnic units (including boat-in and float-in camps), three full-service marinas, two visitor centers, some 200 miles of trails and many other visitor facilities. The Flaming Gorge Dam Visitor Center is open year-round. Some facilities are fully ADA accessible, including campsites, picnic sites and fishing platforms.
A limited number of campsites may be reserved in advance by calling 1-877-444-6777 or visiting www.reserveUSA.com.
The Reliance Tripple
It’s important to know that the mining and railroad industries created towns throughout much of Wyoming. At Reliance, you can see the remains of one such mining town.
Built entirely by the Union Pacific Coal Company, the town of Reliance came into existence in the first decade of the twentieth century. To handle the massive amounts of coal that was being mined, the railroad built a tipple in the town. Inside this building, coal was sorted by size and then loaded onto waiting railroad cars. In 1936, a new tipple was built entirely of steel and iron.
Throughout the tipple’s lifespan, millions of tons of coal was sorted by men, women and machines.
Experience a true turn of the century mining town when you visit Reliance and its historic tipple. Brief self-guided tours around the ghost town and the old tipple will provide you with an appreciation of the area’s rich mining history.
Sweetwater Events Complex & Speedway
From motocross to stock cars to a full-contact demolition derby, nearly every weekend is packed with motor-driven excitement.
Several signature events at the Sweetwater Speedway, located in the Sweetwater Events Complex, include BMX Races, Stock Car Racing and Moto-Cross Racing. Stock car races are scheduled every weekend in June, July and August. Racers vie for the track championship in late August.
Several of the races will feature Dwarf Cars U.S.A. These special attraction races feature nationally sanctioned five-eighths scale replicas, but don’t let the small size fool you. These are serious race cars with serious horsepower and professional drivers.
Several motocross events are also scheduled throughout the summer. Yet another crowd favorite is the always exciting BMX racing. The demolition derby is slated for the second weekend in August. It is sponsored by the local firefighters union and is a smashing good time.
For more information about the Speedway events,
Call the complex at 307-352-6789 or visit www.sweetwaterevents.com
Community Fine Arts Center
A cultural gem in southwest Wyoming’s high desert country, the Community Fine Arts Center in Rock Springs features a unique collaboration between the City of Rock Springs, Sweetwater County and the local School District # 1.
A local science teacher founded this non-profit multi-arts center in 1965 with a great love for art and a vision for his school and community. However, the seeds for this vision were planted much earlier (1939) when the first painting was purchased to hang in the local high school. In the summer months, Mr. Elmer Halseth would travel America to buy paintings, drawings and prints for the students of Rock Springs. He used nickels and dimes gathered from school carnivals, bake sales and donation jars during the school year. The first painting purchased, Shack Alley, by Henrietta Wood, became the nucleus for the permanent collection that now makes its home in the Community Fine Arts Center. Mr. Halseth became the first director of the Center as well as a State Representative and was a supporter of the arts until his death in 1991.
Allen Keeney, a Rock Springs High School art teacher, served as the second director from 1971 to 1991. Mr. Keeney was instrumental in bringing the symphony, ballet, and theatrical performances to Rock Springs that are now an intricate part of how the center serves this community.
The Rock Springs High School’s permanent collection totals over 500 original American paintings, prints, works on paper, photographs and three-dimensional works.
Much of the collection, once called, “one of the best collections of contemporary art in the Rockies,” (Time, Nov. 24, 1952), is permanently on display at the center and art gallery.
Paintings by Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses, Loren McGiver, Elliott Orr, Edward Chavez, Paul Horiuchi, Ilya Bolotowsky, Raphael Soyer, and Rufino Tamayo compose some of the permanent collection along with paintings by wellknown Wyoming, regional, and local artists. The collection continues to grow through purchases and donations. Under the direction of Gregory Gaylor (1991-2000), a second collection was started that is owned by the county with over 50 works currently listed.
The Community Fine Arts Center features a changing exhibition schedule of local, regional, and painters, sculptors, printers, photographers, and artists. National traveling exhibitions are also calendared, offering traditional and nontraditional displays of contemporary art in America.
Rock Springs Historical Museum
Rock Springs was incorporated in 1888 and the town was proud of the fact that no Union Pacific Railroad money was used for the construction of the building. The building housed city offices and the city jail until 1982 when the current City Hall was completed.
Rock Springs came into existence largely thanks to the mining industry. At one time there were as many as ten mines located in the downtown area alone. At first, the labor force for the mines of Rock Springs consisted of miners from Kentucky and Pennsylvania, mainly since they had experience in underground mining operations. However, the workload soon exceeded the labor force and recruiters were sent to Europe to find more help. Promised a much better life, miners and their families immigrated to Rock Springs making it one of the most diverse ethnic melting
pots west of the Mississippi. Today, Rock Springs proudly declares itself, “Home of 56 Nationalities.”
The town quickly became one of the nation’s leaders in coal production. However, this distinction did not come without a price. In 1888, after a long labor dispute, Chinese miners were killed or driven out and Chinatown was burned. As a result, Federal troops were sent in to occupy the town. Rock Springs became one of the few towns after the Civil War to have military troops stationed there in order to protect the immigrants from local citizens.
Rock Springs has been home to the famous and infamous. One of the more infamous characters living in Rock Springs was Robert Leroy Parker, more commonly known as the outlaw Butch Cassidy. Butch acquired his nickname after working in a local butcher shop. After being accused of a robbery he didn’t commit, Butch went back to his criminal ways. The outlaw Calamity Jane is
also reputed to have had a dugout on what is now M Street.
The Rock Springs Historical Museum is proud of the town’s past and the perseverance it took to carve a life out of the unforgiving landscape. The museum houses many different exhibits on life in a western coal town. Make sure to include the museum on your visit to Rock Springs. The museum staff is happy to answer questions about the area and assist with other points of interest, such as the self-guided walking tour of the historic downtown.
Sweetwater County Historical Museum
Discover the rich cultural heritage of southwestern Wyoming at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River. Established in 1967 to preserve and present the history of Sweetwater County, the museum is housed in a 1931 post office building.
In this old building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a treasure trove of bygone days is laid out so visitors can experience what life was like for early settlers and Native Americans. Long- and short-term exhibits, a large photograph collection and local history materials trace the story of Sweetwater County from 1820 to the present. The collection focuses on Native American and fur trade history, mining, transportation, communication, ethnic diversity, and civic and economic development.
Among the distinctive artifacts is a series of Sioux ledger art pieces dating from around the turn of the last century. An important recent acquisition is a Sharps buffalo rifle owned by W.A. Johnson, a Green River pioneer and Sweetwater County Sheriff. Other unique items include a large collection of coal mining artifacts from the Union Pacific Coal Company.
The museum houses permanent and temporary exhibits portraying the lives of early settlers in the area. One significant group of settlers were the Chinese immigrants, who came here to work in the mines and had a large impact on Rock Springs. Chinese objects discovered locally from this immigrant community are on display. Actual rooms are set up that replicate those of an earlier era and a more sedate time.
Depicting an even earlier era, the museum features an exhibit about dinosaurs. To accompany this prehistoric representation, the Bureau of Land Management has loaned a petroglyph from the White Mountain petroglyphs. It is the first time an original artifact such as this will be exhibited in the area.
The museum also has a large collection of historical photos. A highlight of the photo collection is a selection of views showing the now-deserted mining towns of Dines, Winton, E-Plane, Gunn and others in their heyday. The museum’s collection of research materials and photographs are particularly strong in the areas of local history, coal mining and ethnic groups. The staff is always available to help those wanting to research local history.
The museum administers a unique historic property, the Reliance Tipple, located about five miles north of Rock Springs off Highway 191 North. One of the few industrial sites preserved in Wyoming, the tipple was once used to sort and load coal. It was restored and fenced for protection in the late 1980s. A walking path and interpretive signs around the perimeter present the story of the tipple and coal mining.
WWCC Natural History Museum
Dinosaurs thundered across the open space of Wyoming tens of millions of years before human beings. They’re long gone now, but you can see five life-size replicas of these hulking creatures at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs.
Although archaeologists have found fossils of these monsters all over Wyoming, the most prized specimens were taken to the big natural history museums in the east. So in 1989, locals began a fund-raising campaign to return Wyoming’s dinosaurs back to where they first roamed.
In addition to the five dinosaur replicas, the museum displays several wall-mounted fossils of fish, huge leaves and reptiles that have been discovered in the area. You can also see interesting artifacts such as prehistoric pottery, smaller fossils, and items associated with the earliest known humans who lived in the vicinity.
The WWCC Natural History Museum is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Special tours can be arranged by calling 307-382-1666.
Rock Springs Family Recreation Center
The Rock Springs Family Recreation Center offers some of the best facilities and fitness classes in the state. Survival’s reward is playtime, and it’s playtime for everyone at the RSFRC.
For those who prefer classes, the RSFRC offers Zumba, Spin, Yoga, Kickboxing, Step, Tae Kwon Do, Hydro-Aerobics, Core Body Pilates, Fusion (Yoga/Pilates blend) and Power Ball.
Plan to visit the newly constructed leisure pool addition. The aquatic expansion includes a therapy pool, hydro-tubes, lazy river, climbing wall, and spray water area. It is a state-of-the-art leisure area, which also includes a party room/activity area, a family changing/rest-room area, along with tables, chairs, and chaise lounges. Each of these six activity sections is open at different intervals and times during the day to accommodate all ages of patrons. Due to the popularity of the aquatic center, it is recommended to call ahead for amenity availability.
The ice arena pro shop accommodates patron demands for purchasing hockey and figure skating equipment. The Hockey Association and Figure Skating Club host games, shows and programs in the ice arena, which is open September through April.
Committed to providing fun for all age groups, student memberships are available (with proof of full-time student status), benefitting not only local college students, but also visiting students. Annual Senior Citizen’s Day has become a big hit, with door prizes, free entry to the Center, special classes and activities.
Many other amenities are on tap. There are batting and golf cages, with no additional fee for use of either cage area; swimming lessons and open and lap swimming; outdoor and indoor swimming parties, Christmas parties and birthday parties; a running track (8 laps around=one mile); Kid’s Night Out; ice skating lessons, public ice time and ice shows; hockey camps, youth and adult hockey leagues and other hockey tournaments; and basketball, racquetball and volleyball league play and tournaments. For local businesses, the RSFRC offers corporate fitness programs, plus meeting space in the activity room.
For More Information Including Daily Fees
Call (307) 352-1440 or visit www.rswy.net
Green River Recreation Center
You and your family can seek fun, fitness and fellowship at the Green River Recreation Center.
This multipurpose facility hosts an abundance of physical and social activities for Green River and area residents.
The Recreation Center features an Olympic-sized, L-shaped swimming pool for both recreational and competitive swimming. Complete with a “tot dock” and one-meter diving board, the pool offers a wide range of activities and opportunities for young and old alike.A variety of swim programs, lessons, and exercise classes are available for all ages. Program brochures are available at the Recreation Center, City Hall and local grocery stores.
The weight room contains both Universal and Paramount equipment with stations for all interested patrons.
The gymnasium has two full courts for basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis and aerobics, with a jogging track around the perimeter of the gym.
The nursery, for ages three months to 6 years, provides a fun and exciting experience for youngsters while parents are exercising. It is available for patrons during prime-time hours Monday through Friday.
The 9,000-square-foot outdoor recreation deck can accommodate outdoor sports such as basketball, volleyball, tetherball and tennis as well as dances, receptions and other social events. During the winter, the outdoor recreation deck hosts ice-skating.
The multipurpose room is outfitted with a full-service kitchenette to serve your business and social needs, whether a wedding shower, birthday party or corporate meeting.
$4.25 for adults
$2.25 for children (8-18)
Children 7 and under are free with an adult
Hours vary by season, please check their website for complete details
For More Information
Call (307) 872-0511 or visit www.cityofgreenriver.org
Rock Springs Civic Center
The Rock Springs Civic Center is committed to providing a positive recreational experience for the entire community. At 45,000 square feet, this multi-purpose facility is designed to meet all your fitness needs.
We offer a 56-foot-long climbing wall able to accommodate up to 18 climbers at one time. Top rope and bouldering routes change regularly and challenge beginning to advanced climbers. The wall features a top-to-bottom crack, overhangs and a bouldering cave. We invite you to come experience indoor climbing at its best.
Our 25-meter pool features a low dive and a slide with an on-deck hot tub. The Civic Center teaches swimming lessons year-round to American Red Cross guidelines. Staff also offers a water exercise class Monday through Friday mornings along with an AquaTrend class on Mondays & Wednesdays. Swimming in any style is an excellent way to get in shape without putting stress on joints. Additionally, the facility contains three racquetball courts, a large gymnasium and 5 exercise and conditioning rooms filled with excellent equipment. Trainedfitness instructors offer a variety of classes for your convenience.
Children can have a birthday party, hosted by us, on the climbing wall, in the pool, the gym or with the wall and pool combined. We provide the cake and all the trimmings, including party favors; best of all, we do the clean up. Call 352-1420 for prices.
For More Information Including Fees
Call (307) 352-1440 or visit www.rswy.net
Adventure Itinerary
Whether visiting for a week or just passing through, there are enough exciting opportunities to keep you occupied for years to come.
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National High School
Finals Rodeo
Rock Springs, WY
July 15-21, 2012
